Pages

Monday, January 08, 2007

Risotto with Taleggio

This is our latest favorite comfort food. It's a very "bare-bones" risotto, using the bare minimum of ingredients. You can certainly add stuff - in the picture above, there are some gently fried funnel chanterelles added along with a few slices of serrano ham, but frankly, I like the plain version better. It's just so very satisfying! And Taleggio is the perfect cheese here - soft and creamy, but with plenty of flavor. You can add parmesan, you can add butter - but you dont have to. At all.

Heat the oil in a large pan, and the stock in another pan. Fry the onion in the oil for a few minutes without letting it color. Add the rise and turn up the heat. Let it color a bit, and then start adding the stock. Add more as soon as the rice looks dry. It should take about 20 minutes in total - taste the rice so you know when it's done. It should have a little bite to it. You might not need all the stock, or you might need more. (just add hot water then.)

Stir in the cheese, and season with honey, lemon and a little bit of chipotle sauce. Use regular chilli powder or cayenne pepper if you can't get chipotle, but the lightly smoked flavor really works here.

15 comments:

My god, this is absolutely delicious! I followed your "serving suggestion" and pan fried some chanterelles and mixed that in at the end, and served with strips of Serrano ham. The Tallegio just explodes in this dish. Top marks for this, ten out of ten!

Henrik, oooh! I'm so glad you like it :) I was completely amazed first time I had it, plain. Then I went with the additions, and then it's back to plain. In fact, I can't wait to make it again. Total comfort food!

I must admit I was a bit sceptical to the Taleggio when I diced it - it is a very pungent cheese - but it mellowed down beautifully when melting into the stock. Definitely a keeper, this one; I encourage EVERYONE to try this!

Second serving! This time I added a splash of white wine instead of the first ladle of stock, used vegetable stock and finally got my hands on some chipotle sauce to mix in. Mixed wild mushrooms and boletus went in with the cheese. Yummy. Next time I'll take pictures and post it over at Mums instead of highjacking your comments. ;)

In the hope I'm not offending your recipe by these questions: Is it possible to replace the chipotle sauce with some tabasco? Or maybe some pickled jalapenos with cream (I found two completely different recipes)? Chipotle sauce is probably hard to get where I live...

Wieke - oh, you can absolutely add tabasco, or just skip it for that matter, I often do. Chipotle adds a slight smokey flavor that goes well with it - if you'd like, fry some crispy bacon to go on top! :)